“I’m going to do the study they gave us to do,” said Black of the legislature-ordered report. “We’ll do it professionally, thoroughly and then get the facts out to the citizens of Georgia.”

After much debate, lawmakers passed sweeping immigration reform last week. Gov. Nathan Deal announced Friday he would sign it into law.

The new law requires employers, including farmers, to use the government’s E-Verify system to make sure all their workers are in the country legally.

Some in the agriculture industry balked at the plan, saying farmers use a lot of migrant workers and checking their immigration status would be costly and time consuming, and could scare away even legal workers.

Farmers are concerned it could lead to higher labor costs which, in turn, would translate into higher prices at the supermarket. They also worry the law could lead to a boycott of Georgia agriculture products.

Black said the study will try to determine if there is any impact on Georgia growers.